Voice: inbound & outbound calling

Your agent answers the phone and makes calls: real-time speech in, speech out, grounded in the same knowledge base and instructions as every other channel. Calls land in the same inbox as email and WhatsApp - one queue, not a separate call log.

Connecting a number#

Bring your own carrier account and connect its number. Splice supports three, chosen by where you're calling:

CarrierBest for
TwilioUS, Gulf and international
PlivoIndia (+91) and international
ExotelIndia, via App Bazaar

The connect wizard is the same everywhere it appears - the Voice card under Integrations, the empty state on Phone calls, anywhere else that offers to connect a number. Enter your carrier credentials, and Splice seals them and gives you the webhook URL to paste into the carrier.

Buying a number from us

Where managed provisioning is enabled for your workspace, you can search and buy a number directly instead of bringing your own. If you don't see the option, bring your own carrier account.

Carrier setup#

One step happens in your carrier's console: pointing the number at Splice. The exact instructions and URL are shown in the wizard.

CarrierWhere the webhook goes
TwilioPhone Numbers → Active numbers → your number → Voice Configuration → 'A call comes in' = Webhook, method HTTP POST.
PlivoVoice → Applications → create an app with the Answer URL (POST), then assign that app to your number.
ExotelApp Bazaar → create a Call flow with a Voicebot / Voice Streaming applet pointing at the WebSocket URL, then attach the flow to your ExoPhone.

The number answers as soon as the webhook is saved

There is no separate go-live switch on the carrier side. Point the number at Splice only once you've made a test call you're happy with.

Choosing a voice#

Agent → Voice is where you pick how your agent sounds. Voices are grouped by what they're good at rather than by vendor:

GroupCharacter
MultilingualHandles many languages with one voice - the safest default.
NaturalThe most lifelike English voices, tied to a specific language.
Indian languagesVoices built for Indian languages and code-mixed Hinglish speech.

Picking a language filters the catalogue to the voices that actually speak it, so you can't accidentally pair a Hindi script with an English-only voice.

Test calls & previews#

  • Preview any voice from the catalogue before choosing it - the canned samples are free.
  • Type your own sample text to hear a specific sentence in that voice. Custom previews are generated on demand and consume credits.
  • Place a test call to your own number to hear the full pipeline end to end - greeting, turn-taking, interruptions - not just the voice.
  • The panel shows a readiness checklist: number connected, credentials sealed, ready to dial.

Inbound calls#

When someone calls, the agent answers with the inbound greeting from its Voice instructions and talks - no IVR tree, no menu, no hold music. It listens while it speaks, so a caller can interrupt and be heard.

  • The call is transcribed live and answered from the same knowledge base as every other channel.
  • Caller ID counts as a verified identity, so identity-scoped custom tools can run on an inbound call.
  • The call becomes a conversation in the inbox, with its transcript, attached to the lead.
  • Answering inbound requires the agent's Voice channel to be on - otherwise the number is connected but nobody picks up.

Outbound campaigns#

  1. 1Go to Outreach → Phone calls. Until a number is connected the page shows only the connect options.
  2. 2Create a campaign and add contacts - name, number, language and the goal of the call. Numbers are validated as you type, with a country-code picker.
  3. 3Adding contacts never starts dialling on its own. You start it explicitly with Start now.
  4. 4Watch the funnel, volume and Calls table update live while it dials.
  5. 5Click any row to open the call drawer: transcript, outcome and recording.

Outbound callers aren't verified

On an outbound call there's no caller ID to trust, so tools marked "only run for verified users" stay unavailable. The agent asks for what it needs verbally instead.

Outcomes & redialling#

Every call ends with an outcome - connected, voicemail, no answer or failed - and, where one exists, a disconnect reason shown under the badge. A call that the carrier dropped says so rather than reading as a bare failure.

  • Redial one contact from its row, tick several and redial the selection, or redial everything in the current filter.
  • Bulk redial defaults to failed and no-answer, and always uses each contact's latest outcome.
  • Stale calls are pruned automatically, so a campaign never sits showing 'Live' after the carrier already hung up.
  • A campaign moves to done by itself once nothing is pending and no calls are open.

What the agent can do mid-call#

  • Look things up in the knowledge base.
  • Call your own APIs through custom tools - order status, account lookups - with a spoken filler while the request runs so the line doesn't go silent.
  • Email the caller the details they asked for, if a mailbox is connected.
  • Book a callback and send a calendar invite, if Google Calendar is connected.

Whether those actions happen live or wait for approval is the agent's voice action mode: draft queues them in the inbox, auto performs them during the call.

Troubleshooting#

SymptomLikely cause
Calls ring but nobody answersThe webhook isn't saved on the carrier, or it points at the wrong URL. Re-copy it from the wizard.
Answers, then hangs up immediatelyCarrier signature validation failed - usually stale credentials after a carrier key rotation.
The agent sounds like it's reading an emailIts Voice instructions are empty and it's falling back to a written channel's document. Write the Voice one.
Wrong language or accentThe chosen voice doesn't speak that language. Pick the language first, then a voice from the filtered list.
Outbound campaign won't startNo number connected, no credits, or the campaign is still a draft - press Start now.

Before you point real customers at it

  1. 1Write the Voice instructions properly - short spoken turns, one question at a time.
  2. 2Preview two or three voices with your own sample text.
  3. 3Place a test call and interrupt the agent mid-sentence to see how it recovers.
  4. 4Run one small outbound campaign to a handful of internal numbers before dialling a real list.